Elizabeth Warren's Popularity Surging Among Progressives

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is being received with adulation as she campaigns for progressive candidates in West Virginia, Oregon, Ohio, Washington, and Minnesota, The Washington Post reported.

With Democratic candidates avoiding President Barack Obama and with Hillary Clinton sitting on the sidelines, Warren has filled a void. In West Virginia, she is backing Natalie Tennant for the U.S. Senate against GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who is getting campaign support from Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan.

Wherever she goes, Warren brings a message popular with the Democratic base. "Our job is to fight for the families of America. Stitch up the tax loopholes so that millionaires and billionaires pay at the same tax rate as the people in this room," Warren said at one appearance, the Post reported.

Warren, who is 65, insists she will not be a 2016 presidential candidate.

Warren acknowledged, "Natalie Tennant and I do not agree on every issue." The two were on the same side on "core issue" that would improve the lives of working class families, she said.

The Massachusetts progressive has alienated some Democratic financiers by her criticism of the corporate and hedge-fund world.

"Citibank and Goldman Sachs and all those other guys on Wall Street, they've got plenty of folks in the U.S. Senate willing to work on their side," Warren said, according to the Post. "We need some more people willing to work on the side of America's families. Natalie's that fighter."

Capito counters: "West Virginians told us today that they want their next senator to stand up for an all-of-the-above energy agenda that embraces coal. They want someone who will fix the problems with Obamacare. They want someone who will stop strangling regulations from killing jobs and small businesses. That's exactly what I'm prepared to do," the Post reported.

Tennant and Capito are competing to fill the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, who is retiring.

Both Warren and Ryan, a possible GOP presidential contender, have honed messages aimed at drawing middle-class voters, the Post reported.